Despite the success of the Ankara summit, the US is gradually decoupling itself from Europe in ways that will have profound consequences for European security and strategic stability. As ELN Senior Associate Fellow Nicholas Williams writes, NATO will not collapse in a single dramatic moment; it is slowly changing into something less able to perform its central task.
European security architecture is at a crossroads as NATO and the EU search for new roles amid growing uncertainty over the future of transatlantic security. With debate over a more European NATO and a European nuclear umbrella gathering pace, Tarja Cronberg argues that the Ankara summit will test whether allies can move beyond technical debates about defence spending and burden-sharing to articulate a collective vision for Europe’s future security order.
Ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, calls for higher defence spending are dominating the agenda. But military investment alone cannot guarantee Europe’s security. Sabine Mengelberg argues that NATO’s long-term strength depends equally on political cohesion and shared values, foundations that sustain deterrence and the alliance’s ability to confront security challenges.
ELN network members assess whether the Ankara summit marks a turning point for Europe’s role within NATO or a transition shaped by the US. They discuss defence spending, strategic autonomy, and the choices European governments must make to bolster the alliance in an uncertain security environment.
With the United States reducing its strategic role in Europe, NATO is entering a new era of European leadership. ELN Executive Director Robert Ondrejcsák argues that Europe’s priority should be strengthening alliance capabilities rather than creating parallel structures, while examining how rising defence spending, shifting military power within the continent, and new security partnerships will shape NATO’s long-term “Europeanisation”.
What are the consequences stemming from the seeming end of NATO’s global role? ELN Senior Associate Fellow Nicholas Williams looks back at two decades of NATO’s “out-of-area operations”, arguing that foreign crisis management missions have become strategic liabilities rather than assets, exposing European troops to global conflicts while doing little to enhance European security.